The EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel Factory will become fully operational this month, fueled by an onsite 300-megawatt solar farm called the Bighorn Solar Project. It will be the first steel mill in the world to be powered mostly by the sun.
The project to convert the EVRAZ mill into a solar-powered facility was announced in 2019 but has only recently been completed. It’s a partnership among three companies: Lightsource BP, which built and financed Bighorn’s 750,000 solar panels; Xcel Energy, the utility that will dispatch the solar power; and EVRAZ North America, which owns the 150-year-old steel mill.
In a press statement, Lightsource BP Americas’ CEO, Kevin Smith, said the completed project represents a major step toward mitigating the steel industry’s heavy carbon footprint, proving that “even hard-to-abate sectors like steel can be decarbonized when companies come together with innovative solutions.”
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